What is user-generated content (UGC)? A plain guide for brands

User-generated content, or UGC, is any content about a brand that was made by people rather than by the brand itself: a customer's review video, an unboxing on TikTok, a photo of your product in someone's kitchen. It looks like the rest of the feed because it was made the same way the rest of the feed is made, on a phone, by a person, in their own words.

That is exactly why it works. People scroll past things that look like ads, and stop for things that look like other people.

What UGC means today

The term has stretched. It used to mean content customers made on their own, unprompted. Today most marketers use “UGC” for two different things, and it helps to keep them apart.

• Organic UGC: content real customers post on their own, because they liked (or didn't like) your product. You don't pay for it, and you can't control it.
• Creator UGC: content a brand commissions from a creator, made to look and feel like organic UGC. You brief it, pay for it and usually run it as an ad or post it on your own account.

Both are useful. Organic UGC is the most trusted, because nobody was paid to say it. Creator UGC is the most predictable, because you can ask for exactly the video you need.

The main types of user-generated content

• Reviews and testimonials: someone telling the camera what they thought, and why.
• Unboxings: first impressions, straight out of the box.
• Tutorials and how-tos: a real person showing how they use the product.
• Before and after: the change, shown rather than described.
• Day-in-the-life: the product as one small part of somebody's routine.
• Photos and comments: tagged posts, stories and the replies under your own videos.

Why UGC works so well on short-form video

TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are feeds of people talking to their phones. A polished studio ad stands out in that feed for the wrong reason: it signals “advert”, and the thumb keeps moving. A creator talking straight to camera blends in long enough to land a hook.

• It borrows trust. A recommendation from someone like you feels more honest than one from the brand.
• It shows the product in real life, at real size, in real light.
• It's cheap to test. Ten phone videos cost less than one studio shoot, so you can find out which message works.
• It answers objections before they're asked: does it fit, does it work, is it worth it?

How to get more UGC for your brand

1. Ask. Put a line in your order confirmation or packaging inviting customers to share a video and tag you.
2. Make it easy. Give people a simple idea to film, like “show us your first use”.
3. Reward it. Repost the best ones (with permission), or offer a discount on the next order.
4. Commission it. Work with UGC creators for the specific videos organic UGC won't give you, like a 15-second ad with a clear hook.
5. Make it yourself. Founders and staff filming on their phones is UGC-style content too, and nobody knows the product better.

Permission, rights and disclosure

A customer posting about you does not give you the right to use their video in your ads. Ask first, in writing, and say where you'll use it. With creator UGC, agree usage rights in the contract: where the video can run, for how long, and whether you get the raw footage. And when a creator was paid or gifted the product, the video should say so, using the platform's paid partnership label or a clear #ad. Rules differ between countries, so check the ones you post in.

UGC isn't a trend so much as a correction: marketing that looks like the place it's shown. Start with one product and one simple video idea, and build from what people actually watch.